S.T.I.A. Consortium was established with the purpose of creating a framework of companies specialized in intelligent systems oriented to the management, control, maintenance and optimization of continuous and discrete production processes.These companies are highly skilled to cover all aspects of plant's management: from machinery control systems to high-level simulation of manufacturing system, to robotics and AI and cognitive systems.Companies which are members of S.T.I.A. Consortium have specific experiences and products which find application in different industrial sectors, among which steel and oil-refining and are now moving to include integrated high tech advanced solutions for marine and offshore environments.

Some of these companies have already cooperated, with different involvements, in developing high-tech software products, starting to acquire background knowledge pertaining to the specific area in which they find application.

Given the high level of specialization of these products in an industrial setting, an integration between different abilities is required: analysis, engineering and software development abilities must be available in addition to a good knowledge of subjects and needs related to the area of application.

To this end S.T.I.A. Consortium was also established to create a strong bound between companies involved in developing those kinds of products in order to share technical knowledge and make it more easy and faster to cope with immediate and increasing demand of development's resources.

Liguria, expecially Genoa as a primary national port, has historically been a gateway for new technologies and industries, now in system integration, telecommunication and shipyards.

Decades during which these industries operated in Liguria, the presence of the important University of Genova (founded in the 15th century) and of the headquarter of the Italian Institute of Technology have led to the creation and development of several small companies mastering sophisticated technologies.

Instead of being reaggregated in large groups of high tech manufacturers, as happened in other countries like USA, these startups are now operating on an international level in competition with large corporations that can rely on huge workforces and multi level marketing structures.

Aiming at helping them to face the difficulties that can limit their development in such scenario, S.T.I.A. was set up to promote aggregation of knowledge, marketing strategies, research and innovation between members of the consortium and faciliate resource pooling and ramp up.